Yakusoku
by JulietVargas
Summary: Yakusoku or Promise  Even if it should reach the point that few of us are left, we will not give up. We will keep fighting for survival. We will never lose sight of a bright tomorrow. And we will never forget the ones lost. This is our promise.
1. Prologue

Rain pounded fiercely against the window and the wind howled through the cracks in the sill. But Ludwig had become numb to the world around him. All attention was focused on the young man in his arms. It had been several minutes since he had closed the boy's eyes, unable to gaze into the once vibrant almond orbs. But even so, he could not let the boy go. He would hold him and cry over him; cry for the one he ever truly cared about more than his own life. He would hold him until his body disappeared as all nations did when they died.

Ludwig felt his tears coming faster again as he thought about the last moments he had spent with the young man. It had shattered his heart to have to keep the promise made. He lifted his head out of the nation's soft auburn hair and looked over at the gun lying at the bottom of the wall sized world map.

A soft sweet voice spoke into his mind from the near past.

"_Ludwig I want you to promise me something."_

"_What is that." _

"_I don't want to turn. I don't want to become one of them, so if I do...if I get infected...kill me."_

"_What?" _

"_Promise me that if that happens you'll kill me."_

"_I...I can't...how can you ask that of me? I...Mein Gott!"_

"_Ludwig. I don't want to be a monster. And I don't want you or anyone else to see me as one."_

"_But you'd still be alive...I just can't...I mean I..."_

"_Please Ludwig! Promise me!" _

"_I...I promise..."_

"_Thank you. Oh and you can't kill yourself afterwards. You have to stay strong and live by the promise that we all signed in the conference room."_

Ludwig looked up at the promise written in his own handwriting across the bottom of the map and all the signatures placed around the world.

_Alfred F Jones_

_Matthew Williams_

_Arthur Kirkland_

_Francis Bonnefoy_

_Ivan Braginski_

_Wang Yao_

_Kiku Honda_

_Ludwig_

_Feliciano Vargas_

His eyes lingered on that name and he whispered it softly over and over again, clutching to the nation's body.

"Feli." He whispered and then broke into sobs once more, "Gott why? Why did I make that stupid promise?"

His eyes found the bottom of the map again and he shook his head in anger and sorrow.

"What good do promises do anyways?" This main promise had been broken so many times that he had almost forgotten they had made it in the first place, "I'm the only one left. Everyone has left me alone now...even...even the one I thought would never leave me."

He buried his face in the boy's hair again and sobbed and screamed all of his frustration out. He had become lost to the world around him again until he felt the body disappearing and he cried out in shock and despair. He tried to clutch to the boy tighter but he knew that it was futile. In the end he was all alone.

"In the end...the promise was for nothing."

He collapsed to the floor entirely spent from everything and simply staring at the message that had promised unity, that had promised courage, that had promised hope.

_**Even if it should reach the point that few of us are left, we will not give up. We will keep fighting for survival. We will never lose sight of a bright tomorrow. And we will never forget the ones lost. This is our promise.**_


	2. Chapter 1

_Yakusoku_

"Who are we missing?" Ludwig sighed and looked around the room. He ran a hand through his bleach blond hair and closed his eyes to collect his cool. "It really would have been better to have all of us here but...we might have to start without them. But still we need to know who is here and who is not."

Kiku looked around the room to take in the few empty chairs...most of which seemed to be his relatives. None of the other Asian nations were there.

"It would appear that China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong are all missing."

"Ukraine is missing as well da." Ivan spoke up quietly.

Heracles was staring down at his hands with a worried expression on his face.

"What is it?" Kiku asked a bit concerned because, A: His friend seemed to actually be awake and paying attention which meant that he was just as worried...maybe more, as any of them, B: He seemed to have clenched hands around a long piece of violet-red cloth.

The Greek nation looked up and at his friend in confusion at first and then he sighed.

"Turkey and Egypt are missing as well but...that's not all..." He sighed again and stood up to stare at all of the other nations.

"Turkey and I lost contact with Egypt about a week ago. And about 2 days ago, Turkey told me he was going to see what was wrong with Egypt and...I lost contact with him as well...not long after he arrived there."

The other nations stared at Heracles with shock, alarm and intense worry.

"What could have happened to them?" Elizaveta asked in alarm, after all she had temporarily been raised by the Turk the same as Heracles...he was technically like a father to her.

Heracles shook his head and twisted the cloth, which Kiku believed was a turban, as he stared at the table.

"I don't know."

Alfred stood up then as well.

"Could they be being held hostage by the...for lack of a better word...zombies?"

"Eeep!" a very frightened voice squeaked and Ludwig found his jacket being clutched tightly as a certain terrified Italian buried his face into it.

"Alfred I've told you not to call them that." The German sighed in frustration trying to loosen Feli's hands before he ripped yet another of his jackets.

"Right, right, my mistake." The American laughed a bit forcefully before turning serious, "But really, it's a possibility. My intelligence has informed me that in the past week...the number of..._infected _has increased dramatically in Egypt and Turkey...as well as in Ukraine."

There were murmurs of alarm from all around the table and frightened whisperings broke out until another stood up and faced the crowd.

"I too have lost contact with several of my...adopted younger siblings." Arthur spoke confidently but with a tinge of fear in the back of his voice, "Australia, New Zealand, and Wy. I was planning on going to see them within the next week but..."

"NO DON"T!" a frightened voice suddenly shouted from the back of the room.

All of the nations turned in shock to find a very wild looking Wang Yao, the nation of China, being supported by his family members Im Yong and Kou. All three of them looked shaken, Kou's usually passive and unreadable face showed great sorrow and fear on it.

"Mon du Yao! What ever is de matter?" Francis shouted in alarm jumping from his seat with the rest of the nations present.

"Don't go anywhere near any of the countries missing today!" Yao cried out clutching to Kou with trembling hands.

"What's wrong Yao?" a quiet but commanding voice broke into the room and several eyes, including Yao's frightened ones turned to Ivan. The powerful Russian nation was looking with intense concern at the Chinese man and he had taken several steps towards him.

Yao shook his head but didn't take his eyes away from Ivan's.

It was Im Yong that finally spoke in a shaky voice.

"It's Mei."

Shocked eyes turned to face the Korean. For him to use the nation's proper name, something must really be wrong.

"What's wrong with Taiwan?" Rachelle asked in apprehension, the two female Island Nations shared a really strong friendship, so if something had happened to her friend, Seychelles was not about to be left to wonder.

Im Yong swallowed and tried to speak but Kou cut him off.

"Mei is dead."

An instant hush fell across the gathered counsel, only broken by gasps of shock and shouts of "no" and "how?".

Rachelle clutched at her chair in shock.

_Dead? Her best friend was dead?_

Kou looked around the room and sighed.

"Taiwan is dead." He repeated, "Yao killed her. He had no choice."

Yao shuddered and buried his face in his hands as sobs escaped from his lips.

"No choice?" Rachelle whispered quietly, "But...you can't possibly mean that...?"

She covered her mouth as a horrifying idea ran through her mind. She looked into his eyes with a silent plea for him to shake his head, to understand what she was thinking and deny it. But the young Asian nation simply sighed and nodded.

"Mei was infected." He spoke calmly but gazed at the floor to hide his tears from the others.

An instant hush fell over the entire room before a calm and contemplative voice spoke from the Soviet portion of the table.

"They are adapting then."

All eyes turned to Estonia sitting with his laptop poised on the edge of the table.

He looked up and scanned everyone.

"The _infected_ ignored us in the past. It only took that one encounter with Prussia to learn that we are better left alone and could not be infected. However these new events would suggest that they have both gained confidence not to fear us and have managed to 'upgrade' their venom, if you will, to be infectious to us now as well."

Uneasy silence still hovered around the room before it was broken by a single panicked voice.

"Vee Doitsu! Doitsu! I don't want to become a zombie! I want to eat pasta not brains! Don't let them get me Doitsu!"

Ludwig looked exasperatedly at Italy as he, once again, tore a good sized hole in his jacket.

"Italia come down. You're not going to get infected."

"How can you ensure that bastard?" Lovino shouted, fear clearly etching every line of his face, "Do you have some way of keeping them away from us, or keeping the infection from affecting us."

"Actually _I _have been working on something to that effect." Eduard spoke up once more typing hurriedly on his keyboard, "I am currently working on a program that should be able to mass produce a drug that will counteract the effects of the toxin."

"So it would be like a vaccine to prevent contracting a dangerous disease?" Raivis asked quietly.

"Unfortunately no, it would only be effective after being infected, more like antivenom."

"So you're saying that we would still be essentially one of the _infected_ but, not act like one?" Toris murmured thoughtfully.

"I'm still working those parts out." Estonia sighed and continued tapping, "The program is complicated and without being able to test it first, I'll have no way of knowing if it will actually work."

"Basically the next of us infected, will be a guinea pig? Part of an experiment?" Arthur exclaimed.

"How unawesome." Prussia chuckled.

Eduard sighed again and pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Or the ones currently infected." He looked over at Greece, "China told us not to go near any of the countries or principalities that are absent today, or that we have lost contact with. I therefore have a list of presumed infected. It stands as Australia, New Zealand, Wy, Egypt, Turkey, and Ukraine."

"What about Sealand?" Arthur said in sudden fear, "He's not a country so he's not here either."

"Sealand is safe in the other room." Finland replied with a tired smile, "Berwald and I brought him for just that reason. We're uneasy leaving him at home recently."

Sweden nodded.

England sighed in relief and then blanched slightly when he noticed everyone looking at him with slight amusement.

"I just...I don't want anyone getting infected all right. It's not like I'm worried about the brat ok." He turned away to mask his embarrassment.

America laughed and clapped him on the back till the others turned their attention back to Estonia, then he leaned closer and whispered.

"It's ok to show affection in public every now and then Arthur. Especially when the circumstances permit it."

Arthur looked even more embarrassed at being chastised by the younger nation and in such a gentle way too. Still he leaned away and removed America's hand from his shoulder.

"I'll keep that in mind git."

Alfred chuckled and turned his attention back to the others and Estonia. The 'computer nerd', as Alfred had coined him years ago, was madly typing on his laptop once more and blatantly ignoring everyone's stares. But a sudden everyone's eyes to quickly whip towards the nearby window.

Italy screamed and literally launched himself into Germany's lap clutching the stronger nation's neck in terror. On the other hand Germany was staring with impossible disbelief at the source of the other's fright and Japan had his mouth covered with a shaky hand. Most of the other nations had horror stricken expressions as well, except for Greece...who looked like he was going to be sick.

"Óchi...parakaló̱, óchi." Heracles murmured. (No...please no)

Staring straight through the window, with his palms pressed dangerously against the protective glass and his new blood red eyes burning with an uncontrollable hunger, was Sadique Adnan...the man that two days before had been the country of Turkey.


	3. Chapter 2

_Ch.2_

The safe-house door slammed behind Gilbert just as the group of zombies chasing him slammed against it.

"That was way too close." He panted and clutched at the bundle in his hands.

"But you were able to get the supplies?" Roderich nodded at the bundle.

"For the most part." Gilbert shrugged and came away from the pounding door. Fortunately the entire structure of the safe house was sound proof so they couldn't hear the screaming coming from the creatures on the other side. One of which he had recognized as being Stoyan, the former country of Bulgaria.

"Let's see it then." Roderich commanded and the Prussian came over and dumped the contents of the bundle on the table. Most was food stuffs but there was a good deal of bandages of all sorts and sizes and some other medicinal and hygiene items as well, and batteries too. Roderich picked up one of the bandage wraps and a tube of cream and approached the figure curled up on the bed.

"How's he doing?" he asked Feliciano sitting in a chair beside the bed.

The young man sighed and shook his head.

"He's in a lot of pain and is really worried about Antonio, Bella, and Nathanial."

"I am not." Lovino groaned and sat up, hissing at the pain from his ankle.

"Let me see it." Roderich commanded and Lovino gingerly lifted the bed sheet to reveal the horrible yellow mass of puss that was his ankle.

Feliciano inhaled a deep hiss of breath and turned away. They were lucky that Lovino hadn't been bitten of course, but the nails of the infected were cruel and sharp and broke through the skin with ease, and they were also filthy so infection was always sure to follow in the torn flesh. And without the right supplies up until now, his brother's ankle had gotten really bad in just three days. The nation couldn't even walk on it, let alone run, which is why the group of four was currently held up in the safe house with no hope of escape for awhile. Their only form of contact with the outside world was the small radio that sat on the table before them. The two Italians had managed to grab their cells when they had been forced to flee from their house, but neither had remembered to grab a charger and the electronic devises had completely drain of battery not long after. Useless. So the group of four had relied on the two-way radio placed in the safe-house to get information from the other safe-houses scattered all about the world. Eduard had created a main signal that all the radios used and so far it had served all the nations, and the few humans that discovered the safe-houses, well. The only drawback was that they ran on battery power. And the batteries of this particular radio had run out just a day after Feliciano and Lovino had come barreling towards the safe-house with Lovino limping horribly and both their eyes wide with terror as they screamed to be let in. Feliciano had just a small gun and he occasionally turned his head in order to try and aim the weapon at the zombie hoard pursuing them. It was lucky for them that the house had been occupied and they hadn't had to rely on the automatic opening system from their _natural _touch on the wood of the door. Instead it had been opened before they even reached it and Gilbert had aimed his much larger rifle at the infected about to tackle Lovino, and the twins had been able to make it through the door before Roderich had slammed it. He and Gilbert had been in the safe-house for just two days before that after they too had been pursued by a hoard of the infected. Most likely the same hoard, but maybe with fewer members.

Which brought another problem to the surface as Roderich applied the medicinal salve to Lovino's ankle and Gilbert placed fresh batteries into the radio. The numbers of infected were steadily increasing as time went on. And the number the nations and struggling humans had killed was nothing in comparison. Not to mention that Bulgaria wasn't the only new nation that had been infected or killed. Though most weren't the main ones that had gone to international meetings and tried to figure out what to do about the situation. The worst thing that Gilbert had seen yet was Romania attempting to blend in and communicate with the infected, thinking they would consider him one of their own because of his red eyes and sharp teeth. He had been attempting to get to Ukraine in order to try and inject her with Eduard's antivenom. But he had been gravely mistaken, and Gilbert had watched with Elizaveta, Vash, Heracles, and Lili, in horror as Vladmir was torn apart savagely. Lili had been sick after that and Gilbert didn't blame her one bit. And since then, the infected seemed to be getting even smarter. He had great doubts now whether Estonia's plan would even work if it was ever able to be put into effect.

Lovino gave a fresh hiss of pain as Roderich began wrapping his ankle tightly with the bandage and the radio suddenly sprang into life with a female voice.

"Hello? Hello? Who's there? This signal has finally been coming in which means that someone is there right?"

"Liz!" Feliciano exclaimed and rushed over to join Gilbert at the radio, "Liz it's Feli, can you hear me?"

"Oh thank god!" Elizaveta's voice crackled through the speaker and suddenly sounded a bit farther away as if she had turned away from it. But Feliciano was still able to catch her faint words, "It's ok Ludwig, I got through and it's Feli that I'm talking to. He sounds fine."

Feliciano's heart leapt in joy and relief. He had just had confirmation that what he feared most was not a reality. Ludwig was ok. He was with Elizaveta, and possibly others.

Ludwig's voice suddenly came over the radio and made him smile even more.

"Feliciano, are you really ok? Who's with you?"

None of the nations ever traveled alone anymore unless they got badly separated while fleeing a zombie hoard, so it wasn't surprising that Germany assumed there were others in the safe-house with him.

"Yo bro!" Gilbert chuckled.

"Gilbert?" Ludwig's voice sounded surprised and relieved at the same time.

"And Roddie and Lovi too." Feliciano added.

"So there are only four of you there?" Ludwig sounded even more relieved but hopeful that there might be others.

Feliciano's stomach dropped and he took a deep breath.

"Who else have you lost contact with?"

"Russia and those with him were holed up in a safe-house in Latvia when their radio suddenly went dead while we were talking to them."

Feliciano caught his breath and closed his eyes to try and force down his panic. It was amazing what fighting for your survival could do to a person. How he had changed since that day back in the world meeting room where they had first seen Turkey as one of the infected. It was much easier to keep his terror under control now. He almost never screamed and tried to clutch to others, except when the horrible dreams came.

"There's a possibility that their batteries went dead just like ours." Gilbert spoke up, breaking Feliciano from his thoughts.

"I suppose that is a possibility." Ludwig's voice sounded really tired now, "You managed to find extra batteries in the safe-house though?"

"Nah Bruder, I stole em from a convenience store."

There was silence from the other end before Ludwig's voice came again, much softer and with great panic.

"That...was a very dangerous thing to do."

The infected liked to hang about large establishments in the towns, as if they knew that people ventured there in need of certain services and supplies. It was one of the proofs that the creatures were getting smarter.

"Yeah well, the awesome me was able to handle it. Besides, we needed medicine for Lovino."

"What happened to Lovino?!" another female voice came on the radio then.

Feliciano's heart leapt.

"Lovi, it's Bella!" he called to his brother.

"What?!" Lovino exclaimed and tried to stand up from the bed on his now fully wrapped foot, "Shit!" he exclaimed as the pain made his leg give out and he fell back against the edge of the bed.

"Lovi!" Feliciano exclaimed and rushed over to his brother to make sure he hadn't gotten more hurt.

"I warned you not to stand on it yet." Roderich sighed and went over to take Feliciano's place at the radio. He switched the dial to mass broadcast.

"Status report from safe-house K in Bulgaria to all of you who may be listening. Romano was hurt by the infected. They tore the skin open on his ankle with their nails, and we just now were able to get medicine for the resulting infection. No he was not bitten, if he was he would not be here with us. Thanks to Prussia we now have supplies for a few more days. Current members of this house are Austria, Prussia, Italy, and Romano. Status report requested from the other safe-houses currently listening in." Roderich spoke into the radio.

They all waited for the reply/s to come and Feliciano helped Lovino limp over to the table to listen closer as well.

Ludwig's tired voice came back over the radio.

"Status report from safe-house J in Bulgaria."

Feliciano's heart leapt even more.

"They're close!" he exclaimed and looked at the others excitedly, "That safe house can't be more than a few towns away. If we struck out at first light and made it to the car, we could be there in no time."

Roderich hushed him as the rest of Germany's report came over the radio.

"No severe injuries here. Current members of this house are Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Finland, and Sealand."

Ludwig's voice died and the radio crackled again with a new voice.

"It's good to hear those names. Status report from safe-house R in France. England's arm got shredded by infecteds' claws but we got it under control quickly. Also, Iceland tripped and got a concussion, but he's doing much better now. We are starting to run out of supplies though. Current members of this house are Denmark, Norway, Iceland, England, and Sweden...who currently looks like he's on cloud nine." Mathias' voice sounded like he was grinning with the last part of the message and the radio went silent again.

"Status report from the hero, from safe-house T in France! Thank god England's with you cause I've been worried ever since we got separated last night! We're all ok here with the exception of several of us being at our wits end with worry. Supplies don't appear to have been touched for a good while. Current members of this house are America, France, Seychelles, Spain, Netherlands, and Switzerland." Alfred's voice also sounded cheerful and loud like usual.

"Status report from safe-house G in Mongolia." the radio crackled to life again, "It is rather cold here but we are managing the best we can. Our supplies are starting to run low though and China got several bad scratches that we are trying to get under control. We don't have the right kind of medicine at present though. Current members of this house are Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Canada."

"How the blazes did Matthew get all the way over there?!" Gilbert exclaimed but he was shushed by Feliciano this time as the radio crackled to life yet again.

"Status report from safe-house P in Latvia. Poland and I are both fine, but the house has lost all electricity so it's really dark in here. We're making the most of it with candles, a kerosene lamp, matches, and a flashlight though. Current members of this house are Lithuania and Poland."

The radio went silent again and stayed that way for a good several moments. Roderich was about to speak into it again and thank everyone for their updates and wish them well when it suddenly crackled to life with someone taking a deep breath and then exhaling before Ivan's voice spoke softly but nonetheless with all the hard reality of his words.

"Status report from safe-house Q in Latvia. Latvia...is dead."


End file.
